Non-woven textiles formed from polymers are useful materials for a variety of applications including, but not limited to, general textile applications and specialty applications such as scaffolding materials for tissue engineering. Tissue scaffolds must be capable of mimicking native tissues to not only provide a temporary repair of damaged or diseased tissue, but also to promote the healing process. Furthermore, porosity is a significant parameter to evaluate when gauging the success of a particular scaffold because the cellular environment is crucial to cell viability and migration. Suitable porous bioengineered constructs and methods of forming the same are described in co-pending parent U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/943,803, which is herein incorporated by reference.
Under certain circumstances, it may be desirable for the bioengineered constructs to be biodegradable, such that the bioengineered construct can form a scaffold for bone or other tissue formation that degrades once the new tissue is sufficiently formed. However, many of the previously described materials that are used to form bioengineered constructs have a very slow rate of degradation. For example, studies of poly(propylene fumarate) (PPF), a polymer commonly used in bioengineered construct application, show little or no degradation in vivo after 18 weeks and little or no degradation in vitro after 50 weeks. It will be appreciated that tissue regeneration typically takes place in significantly less time than this resulting in a tissue scaffold which can eventually hinder, rather than aid, the healing process. Accordingly, there is a need for bioengineered constructs formed from materials with significantly reduced biodegradation times.
Furthermore, it will also be appreciated that tissue generation rates can vary based on the type of tissue being generated (e.g., bone vs. cartilage, large repair vs. small repair). Accordingly, a tunable system that enables the formation of bioengineered constructs having a specific, predetermined biodegradation rate would be greatly desired.